RUSSIA
1953

SUSTAINED progress toward the international enactment of calendar reform was reported at the Seventh Annual Meeting 15 January 1954 of The World Calendar Association, International, held in the International Building, New York City. Published highlights (JCR Vol. 24, April 1954) for RUSSIA:

The first official expression of support for calendar reform from the U.S.S.R. came in July at the Geneva meeting of the International Standardization Organization. One of the subjects for discussion at these sessions was The World Calendar, on which the principal speaker was James Avery Joyce of London. Mr. Joyce's remarks, dealing with reasons for placing calendar standardization on the regular program of the I.S.O., were followed by an approving speech from the Russian delegate, M. Igkourakov. Indications that his attitude had official sanction appeared a few days later in the Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. There was further confirmation at the United Nations in November, when the Russian delegates discussed the matter informally with representatives of India, England and the United States. . . . An American authority on Russian affairs made this comment: "Russia is interested in calendar reform for practical reasons of her own. Great stress is placed by Soviet economics today upon improved planning and statistical services, and in studying the problems of economic planning the Russians have probably found calendar reform advantageous. A combination of factors appears to have swung Russia into the growing list of supporters of calendar reform. Whether the Soviet will go beyond its present cautious endorsement of study of The World Calendar proposal remains to be seen."

CONTACT The World Calendar Association

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